Danny Davis & Gretchen Bleiler Win Winter Dew Superpipe

Wow! That was exciting! The sun finally came out in Breckenridge, and with it the hammers. Hopefully you got a chance to see the entire Superpipe finals broadcast live on NBC between the football games and the golf. Really though, it was an epic battle royal with perfect conditions—it was just rider vs. rider—gloves off.

The last person in recent memory to beat Shaun White was Kevin Pearce at last year’s European Open. But it happened again. Friday’s qualifiers ended with Shaun in first, Danny Davis in second, and Kass in third. At the start of the finals comp, twelfth place finisher Scotty Lago bumrushed into the lead on the first run of the event, and he held onto it almost to the end. Lago charged the first hit with a front 10 and then threw the most stylish front 9 nosegrab further down scoring a 90. Others tried to overtake him, but the whole first round was uncharacteristically filled with harrowing wrecks (one courtesy of Greg Bretz who was riding with a cast fresh out of wrist surgery) and random slideouts. In fact, not until the last two riders dropped in on the final round did Lago get toppled. Danny Davis didn’t break under the pressure, comboing a front 9 and a massive front 10 nosegrab with massive amplitude which landed him four points ahead of Lago in first … but Shaun was next to drop, and he’s made a career of not breaking under pressure (remember the Olympic qualifiers?). But it didn’t happen, which isn’t to say that he didn’t rule it and put on a hell of a show as always.

This win was especially significant for Danny Davis who hasn’t seen the pipe podium since 2006 when he won both the Nippon Open and the Breck Grand Prix Superpipe, two years worth of injuries have kept him off the podium sicne then. But now—he’s back.

The women’s field was a real nail biter, too. The final six women included a new name, open qualifier Holly Crawford from Australia who held her own within the stacked field. Kelly Clark took first last weekend at the inaugural Grand Prix at Copper—was she going to hold onto it? Almost, but Gretchen wasn’t going to make a habit of losing this winter. With Kelly, Elena, and Hannah in place for the podium, Gretchen dropped in and threw a front nine on the first hit and kept the momentum going down the line including her crowd-pleasing crippler.

The next stop of the Winter Dew Tour is January 8–11 at Mount Snow, Vermont. You can bet Shaun’s going to come back fighting. It’s on!